Its
one of those Saturday mornings where I am perfectly content on
be woken up by the white hot light of the sun blasting through
my cracked window shades. Sleep is great but I am roused by the
sun itself.

Throwing back the covers and sliding my lazy ass to the side of the bed
I reach to my alarm clock and flick it to OFF.
I stumble awkwardly into the kitchen.
I twist the stovetop dial on and spray a pan down with some generic cooking
stuff as I look outside, my eyes finally adjusting to the light. It was
gorgeous, the pure perfection of a "good summer day." White
clouds, as stereotypically puffy as marshmallows, dotted the clean blue
sky as rays of light blasted through them.
As I cracked the first eggs, I heard the distinct sound of my "Jamaican
Time" ringtone that is used specifically for riding buddies. A smile
reaches each ear as I walk back into my messy room and grab my phone.
However, "Mmmm, yeah?" is all I can muster up in response.
"Get suited you bum," the voice was young, excited, and way
too loud for my morning ears. "Ill be there in 20."
"Joe I hate you." I say, trying to stay grumpy but catching
his contagious enthusiasm. "Make it 15."

I stretch and drop the phone onto the bed. I return to breakfast. A dash
of pepper, flip, drop some toast, poor a glass of OJ and in minutes Im
full.
By the time I brush my teeth and squeeze into my black and red leather,
I hear the thunderous roar of exhaust coming down my street. I smack the
garage doors button and it slowly rises. As if in some B-rated movie,
Joe is waiting on the other side trying for a dramatic intro. Being his
only audience, I figured there was only one way to greet him.
I raise my fist and give him the middle finger.
"Surprised you were even up," he says jokingly after taking
off his helmet. "And I love you too."

The next few minutes are spent bickering over which roads to rail and
age-old shit-talking. The twisty roads are plentiful, even nearby, making
it a toss-up of which compass direction well take rather than any
specific route.

The radio in the garage, previously spitting the docile country tunes
my father enjoys, chirps up with the news, weather, and time. Its
only 9am and were ready to go. Tuning the radio to a rock station
we get lucky and a loud, fast tune tears out of the speakers. The screeching
guitar solo fires up, fueling the excited flame within us. The solo ends
and returns to the screaming voice of the chorus as I wheel my motorcycle
out next to Joes. Saddling up, we leave the driveway.
"We look like freakin twins dude," Joe shouted over our
thundering exhaust notes cruising down the block. "Should have thought
that one through."
"Chicks dig twins," I reply squeezing the front brake for the
stop sign as the engines quiet in anticipation.

He was right to an extent. My suit was mostly black with red, his was
mostly red with black. I had a black bike, his was red and black. Speeding
down a back road out of town we were comets, brightly streaking across
the vision of onlookers and stargazers.

For the next few hours we slowly empty our gas tanks, pinning gears just
to drop back down through the powerband to arc through the constant twists
and turns. Our rides are tilted nearly sideways, dragging knees and sending
pebbles into the sky.

Passing cars and trunks, there isnt a soul capable of keeping up.
Speed limits are useless, law enforcement knows not to bother, and kids
in the lawns of the few farms we pass jump and wave as we zoom by. Triple
digits blink on and off of my speedometer, but I dont notice.
"Woooo!" I hear Joe yell each time we come to the occasional
stop sign. "Yeah man!"

All I can do is nod my head. We are doing what we love and we are good
at it. No one sees this side of us, except a precious few. We dont
sit at gas stations for hours and pretend; we fill up and are gone in
minutes to return to this. A smile fills my helmet as I feel the wind
is my wingman and Joe my rearguard for the day.
This is our sport, this is our life.

"Nice day," I said in great understatement while we sat outside
the BP, sipping energy drinks and wolfing crappy gas station hotdogs.
The sides of our tires are shredded, bugs plaster our suits and helmets,
and the smell of farm and country lingers in my nostrils.
"And to think people call us crazy," Joe said laughing and coughing
on the processed meat and cheap ketchup. "Were not trying to
kill ourselves, were trying to live!"

The smile Ive had all day just gets bigger as I shake my head at
Joes motto, an answer to those who disagree. I swear hes said
it every day since he got his first puck down and scraped a knee into
this life.
We throw away our trash, the tinfoil and aluminum flashing in the setting
sunlight. The motorcycles fire up and purr in readiness for more action.
But now its time to go home, you would have to be crazy to rail
in the dark of night. Pulling out onto main, we cruise steadily at the
speed limit.

As we drive back through town on our respective ways home, I didnt
see the car blow the stop sign until it was too late. As the leader I
struck first, even at 30 mph the impact sent me flying over the roof,
skidding and bumping down the street like a rag doll.
I hear a second loud thump and crush, only assuming that can be Joe following
like usual. I hit the curb and fling up and over, a series of cracks and
a gasping pain in my chest explode. Broken, is the last thought I have
before my helmet strikes a tree.

"These kids are trying to kill themselves," a man, dressed in
white and surrounded by light, says as I blink my eyes, returning to the
real world. The tight but flexible suit I had on all day is cut and torn
in the corner.
Even naked I still look like the suit, a crumpled pile of black and red.
Instead of the helmet, I have a clear plastic mask, its barely helping
me breathe.
"That left lung is punctured through by the rib," the man in
white says again. "Put him under, we have work to do."
I feel a prick in my arm, hopefully a needle and not an exploding tendon
or another broken bone. It doesnt matter though, a cooling feeling
is rushing through me now. My eyes close against the bright lights, Im
back on the road with Joe. Were scraping knees, the sun is bright,
our lines are perfect.